Intentions to Marry, 1876

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840388, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Alexandra at Archives NZ Wellington, January 31 2025

A few of the pages are missing.

Page 709

District of Timaru Quarter ending 30 June 1876

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
22	4 April 1876	Jeremiah Lallwan Catherine McMahon		Bachelor Spinster	Publican Servant	26 23	The Cave Timaru	4 days 2 years	Catholic Chapel, Timaru			4th April 1876	Rev Jean Antoine Goutenoire
25	17 April 1876	Peter Billihz Elizabeth Coombs	Peter Billitz Elizabeth Coombs 💍 1876/892	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	29 20	Washdyke Winchester	3 weeks 1 year	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Temuka	76/989	Mark Coombs, Father	17th April 1876	Registrar of Marriages, Timaru District
28	17 April 1876	Jeremiah Sullivan Honora McSweeney	Jeremiah Sullivan Hanora McSweeney 💍 1876/895	Bachelor Spinster	Publican	26 23	The Cave Timaru	17 days 3 months	Catholic Chapel, Timaru	76/992		17th April 1876	Rev Jean Antoine Goutenoire, L Fauvel, R[illegible]
30	5 May 1876	James Atterall Johanna Heneys	James Atherall Johanna Hennessy 💍 1876/947	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	22 25	Timaru Timaru	3 years 3 years	Catholic Chapel, Timaru	76/994		5th May 1876	Rev Jean Antoine Goutenoire, L Fauvel, R[illegible]
31	10 May 1876	George Duncan Christina Watt	George Duncan Christina Watt 💍 1876/952	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	24 20	Timaru Timaru	10 months 1 year	Residence of W.J. Fobs, Timaru	76/1001	Declaration made by person in the Colony [illegible]	10th May 1876	Rev William C. Oliver, Pres
32	13 May 1876	John Matheson Elizabeth Gray	John Matheson Elizabeth Gray 💍 1876/1355	Bachelor Spinster	Boatman	28 25	Timaru Timaru	18 months 12 months	Residence of G.W. Matheson, Timaru	76/257		13th May 1876	Rev William Gillies, Pres
36	27 May 1876	Phillip Bradley Eliza Ann Hallam	Phillip Bradley Eliza Anne Hallam 💍 1876/894	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Dressmaker	23 21	Timaru Timaru	2 years 2 years	St Mary Church, Timaru	76/991		27th May 1876	Rev Archdeacon Henry W. Harper, C of E
37	31 May 1876	William Perry Catherine Brosnahan	William Perrys Catherine Brosnahan 💍 1876/949	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 19	Levels Plains Levels Plains	3 years 4 years	Catholic Chapel, Timaru	76/998	Timothy Brosnahan, Father	31st May 1876	Rev Jean Antoine Goutenoire, L Fauvel, R[illegible]
38	10 June 1876	Hugh Brosnahan Julia Scannell	Hugh Brosnahan Julia Scannell 💍 1876/951	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	25 22	Levels Plains Levels Plains	5 years 3 years	Catholic Chapel, Timaru	76/1000		10th June 1876	Rev Jean Antoine Goutenoire, R[illegible]

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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What is an Intention to Marry?

The 1854 Marriage Act required Pakeha settlers (and later Maori) to register their intention to marry from 1855. The resulting Notices of intention to marry were sent by the district registrars to the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages and bound into large volumes, each containing a year of notices. These registers were eventually deposited with Archives New Zealand.

What information does an ItM record?

A typical Intention to Marry notice records:

the bride and groom's full names
occupation of the groom (and sometimes the bride)
their ages
district where the marriage would take place
how long they had resided in the district
Where the marriage would take place (eg, a specific church)
Who would officiate the marriage (eg, a minister)
The date of the notice and also a date when the certificate was issued. Marriages had to take place within 3 months, and usually occurred within a week or so of the certificate date.
If one of the parties was under 21, a parent who consented to their marriage was usually specified

These details can provide clues for genealogical and historical research. Knowing the date and district makes it easier to look for wedding notices in Papers Past, and the amount of time that the parties had resided in a district can offer clues to whether a person was born in NZ, or when they immigrated.

However, finding individual records in the Intentions to Marry registers was typically a slow and manual process, usually requiring an in-person visit to Archives NZ's Wellington office (during limited opening hours) and using a handwritten card catalogue index to look up individual names.

Eight years of the registers had been digitised by Archives NZ prior to 2024, but even these digital versions required the use of a manual index and usually examining several pages to locate specific records.

What is the Intentions to Marry Project?

This project aims to transcribe the New Zealand Intentions to Marry registers (from 1855 to 1925) with the assistance of new technology (AI), making the records freely available and easily searchable.

The ITM records have also been cross-referenced with the registered marriages at DIA Births, Deaths and Marriages, where possible (a small fraction of the recorded intentions to marry did not become a registered marriage).

Currently we have almost all records between 1855 and 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

The project is led by Luke Howison, a web developer who made the free genealogical research search tool NZ Ancestor Search Helper and Archway-style Collections Search. There are also some wonderful volunteers assisting with digitising the registers.

Can I volunteer to help?

Yes, you can! You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

I am also looking for Wellington-based volunteers to help me digitise more years of the registers. I can provide lighting equipment and a 'clicker' (to trigger your phone's camera).

How is the transcription done?

There are several steps to digitising and transcribing the records:

Digitising the registers (taking clean, straight, high-quality photos)
Processing the digitised pages by straightening, cropping and sharpening the images
Transcribing each page with a combination of AI tools
Matching each ITM with a registered marriage when possible
Human verification of the transcribed information

The main LLM (AI) used are the Google Gemini Pro and Flash models, which have excellent 'Vision' capabilities, and a generous free tier.

Archives NZ has released the register years they have digitised (1865-69, 1872, 1874 and 1880) under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.

The Intention to Marry registers (up to 1925) are more than 100 years old, so their Crown Copyright has expired, putting them in the public domain. This also applies to any 'mechanical reproductions' (eg, pictures or photocopies) of their content without substantial alteration.

The transcribed records on this website are released under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal license, which allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, even for commercial purposes, while giving credit to the creator (NZ Intentions to Marry Project).